As a preamble to Wednesday's showdown with Shakhtar Donetsk, this was no more taxing than a stretching exercise for Celtic. A crumbling Aberdeen's capitulation began as early as Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink's 12th-minute opener and was confirmed even before Aiden McGeady and Scott McDonald added their respective contributions.

Not even the emphatically defensive 5-4-1 formation favoured by Jimmy Calderwood, the Aberdeen manager, could prevent the leakage that took Celtic into a comfortable position so early in the match. In fact, when Vennegoor of Hesselink delivered the first of the three, the area around goalkeeper Jamie Langfield was even more crowded than usual, auxiliaries having arrived from midfield as buttresses against McGeady's corner from the left.

All were undone by Scott Severin's unconvincing clearance. He sliced the ball into the air and it was headed back across the goalmouth by Jiri Jarosik to the waiting Vennegoor of Hesselink, who had only to head it over the line from three yards.

Langfield was troubled on several other occasions, notably shots from McDonald and a long-range dipper from Jarosik that clipped the bar, before McGeady doubled the lead. The young Republic of Ireland international showed typical awareness and skill when he carried the ball in from the right, past two static opponents, and rifled his left-foot shot low to the left of the goalkeeper from around 16 yards.

Aberdeen's most pressing problem at that stage was a seeming acceptance of the inevitable, their attempts at responding in a positive way marked by sluggish movement and inaccurate passing, most of their forward moves floundering long before they came within threatening distance of Mark Brown, who was standing in for Artur Boruc, a late withdrawal.

At half time, Calderwood unsurprisingly rearranged his team into a 4-4-2, replacing midfielder Chris Clark with the quick teenage forward Chris Maguire and pushing Severin into his more accustomed role in the middle quartet. But no amount of tactical tinkering can compensate for the kind of goalkeeping error that led to Celtic's third goal before the modification had had time to have any effect.

The move started with exceptional work from Scott Brown, the midfielder bewildering three opponents inside the centre circle with a clever turn before surging forward and slipping a pass to McDonald on the right of the area. Langfield was out quickly to make the save from the striker's shot, but then allowed the ball to slide out of his grasp, giving the Australian the opportunity to left-foot it into the net from 12 yards.

Langfield's tendency to beat out, rather than hold, scoring attempts had already been in evidence, but he later prevented a truly embarrassing scoreline. His double save from Jarosik, who had initially volleyed a cross from Lee Naylor on the left and followed up on the rebound, was extraordinary.

Langfield should have been beaten, however, as a result of a thrilling run by Scott Brown. He took Naylor's chip out of defence and started on a 70-yard run down the left that took him past the struggling Zander Diamond before he veered towards the area. Naylor, who had covered the same ground as back-up, took the back-heeled pass and, from a seemingly unmissable position, drove the ball off the goalkeeper.